West Indies skipper, Jason Holder, is of the opinion that the exposure to English county cricket would be ideal in helping to a turn around the fortunes of his side’s batsmen.
Holder was at the time speaking to the media following his side’s 2-1 test series defeat at the hands of hosts, England in the first international fixture since the Novel Coronavirus pandemic.
In the interview, Holder, when asked about the impact of West Indians playing county cricket stated, “Yes! That is something that would definitely help our cricket as well too and obviously, give our players a bit more exposure, “he declared.
“If you can get more players over here that would definitely put us in better stead but I mean it’s a tough call,” he added.
However, he was cognizant of the current system with respect to the rules for the allocation of overseas-based players per club.
“At the moment some of the rules for overseas players are a bit stringent and more or less I think you have to play international cricket to qualify as an overseas player in county cricket.”
Holder, along with West Indies head coach, Phil Simmons have continuously stressed the importance of having the batsmen carry on and get big scores under their belts.
“If you look through or batting performances we had plenty starts, quite a few guys got half centuries got into the 40s and 30s but didn’t quite kick on. I think the difference is with England when [Ben] Stokes got in he went big, [Dom] Sibley got in and went big, and unfortunately we did not do that,” said the West Indies skipper.
Holder, the number two ranked all-rounder in the ICC rankings stated: “We definitely need our batters to score a bit more runs and it’s been mainly to convert most of the starts we’ve been getting and it hasn’t been the case where they haven’t been getting starts, it’s mainly converting them.”
In the three-match series, Jermaine Blackwood had the highest individual score for the Caribbean side with a match-winning 95 in the first Test. He also finished as the leading run getter for his team with an aggregate of 211 runs. In total, West Indies had eight 50-plus scores. Blackwood, Kraigg Brathwaite and Shamarh Brooks both scored two half-centuries.
Holder reflected on the series and noted “We are obviously disappointed to lose the series. Yes, we had quite a few positives in the series, just probably a few more conversions from the start we got would have done us a lot better. I felt the bowlers really tried particularly here in Manchester where the conditions were tough at times but also we didn’t field as well as we probably could have and those are things we could definitely control.”
